This week we’re taking a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2013. What were our expectations? Were they fulfilled? Or were they obliterated?

The movies I was looking forward to most this year and the movies that are my favorite from the year ended up being two pretty different lists. Here are the movies I was looking forward to the most (in no particular order)

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

2. Hunger Games: Catching Fire

3. Man of Steel

4. Thor: The Dark World

5. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Here’s the list of the ones that ended up being my favorites (again, in no particular order):

1. Ender’s Game

2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

3. Man of Steel

4. Elysium

5. Now You See Me

So why do only two of these actually match up? Let’s go through them one-by-one and I’ll tell you.

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

It deviates from the book. I know that. However, I’m not sure that I dislike it. The truth is, Peter Jackson has taken a little book and incorporated other elements and expanded it into a much more epic story. It might be better thought of as a Lord of the Rings prequel than simply a Hobbit adaptation, and it’s a very very good one. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing as the voice of Smaug and Martin Freeman was still phenomenal as Bilbo. And who will be able to forget the scene fighting down the river? Read Eric’s review here.

2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

So, this one didn’t make the list. Why not? It’s simple. It wasn’t as good as some other movies that came out this year. I’m a big fan of the Hunger Games series and Catching Fire is my favorite book. However, the makers decided to completely ignore Katniss’ investigation of District 13 (which is one of the coolest parts of the story), which I found extremely irritating. As a result, the end of the movie felt extremely abrupt, and didn’t pack the punch that it should have. It wasn’t terrible (I’ll still buy it when it comes out), but there were some other movies that were better. Read Tres’s review here.

3. Man of Steel

As I said when this movie came out, I was not a huge Superman fan. I’m more one now than I was, but I have found the Superman movies unbearably boring. However, I was optimistic with this one. I love Amy Adams and I’ll watch about anything that Lawrence Fishburne is in, and then of course there’s Christopher Nolan’s name being attached to it. So I went. I wasn’t disappointed. This film probably turned out the best of any of the five on my initial list. Kudos to Henry Cavill for pulling off a difficult character. The movie was excellent. Read Eric’s review here.

4. Thor: The Dark World

I was a little bit disappointed with this one. There were some really cool parts and I loved the humor through the whole thing, but I was really looking forward to Christopher Eccleston playing Malekith and in the end he was just a really flat character. Loki was fantastic, of course, but they tried to make the primary conflict about Malekith and it just didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Read my review here.

5. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

This one was definitely a disappointment. There are some really interesting worldview questions that get brought up by the material dealing with demon hunters (read my review here). Still, Valentine’s character, even being the villain, was pretty weak. The acting as a whole, other than Lilly Collins’ performance, was pretty stiff, and the story just fell a little flat. I do applaud, however, those in charge of the visuals. That part of the movie was great. As a whole, though, it just wasn’t very good.

Now, there are three movies that I didn’t expect to end up on my “top movies of 2013” list, yet there they went. I’m not going to address these in depth, but there are some things from these movies that I thought were pretty cool.

Ender’s Game surprised me. I expected it to be a pretty cool sci-fi film, vying for a chance at the often sought teen fandoms alongside The Hunger Games. What I found, though, was a pretty thoughtful exploration of a child military protégé’s conflict: what happens when you have to choose between victory and virtue? It was fantastic. Check out Elliott’s review here.

Elysium is one that was on my radar, yet it managed to be better than I thought it would. It did have a lot of profanity, which was one downside, but I’m looking forward to watching it again, this time on ClearPlay. It’s very poorly (if at all) veiled sci-fi analogy to immigration in America, which I found intriguing. It was a creative way to go about the issue, and showed how filmmakers do more than just entertain; they attempt to shape our opinions on sensitive social, moral, ethical, and political issues. A lot of times it’s for the worst. This, however, was for the better. I won’t say that I agree with all of the political implications of the film, but it brought up some very intriguing questions that we need to be asking, and prompts us as Christians to think about how we treat those less fortunate than we.

I had never even heard of Now You See Me until it was on DVD. I have no idea how I missed it, but I did. Then I watched it. Then my brain melted. I love movies that are mind-blowing, and this one certainly was. First there was the cast: Jesse Eisenburg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and several others that I hadn’t seen in other movies before. Then there were the magic tricks. Occasionally I enjoy watching magic shows and trying to figure out how magicians pull off their tricks. I found it immensely more entertaining watching this movie and being led to the conclusions about how they pulled it off. The twist at the end was absolutely amazing, too. It’s the only brain-teaser movie ever to top Inception, but it did. It was probably the top movie of 2013, in my opinion. Read Tres’ review here.

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3 comments on “Looking Back on 2013: Logan’s Take”

Interesting list Logan. I thought Now You See Me got some unfair criticism but I really didn’t like Ender’s Game, just thought it was dull and all over the place in terms of story and pacing. But glad to hear you got something out of it.

I was intrigued by the social commentary, too. Of course, I love the action and watching Ender tackle all of his obstacles, but I really loved the fact that Ender, although a child, in the end has the courage to stand up to his superiors when something isn’t right. That’s a really good message to us. To do the right thing even when those in authority aren’t.

Good points about Elysium, Logan. Lots of undertones to consider in what directors are trying to tell us and to whatever extent they’re trying to shape opinions. I wouldn’t rate Now You See Me nearly as high, but I was entertained by it.